I want to take a moment to thank those of you who are reading this. I'm really glad that a few people are enjoying this story, as I had a lot of fun writing it.

This story is finished, so, barring any bizarre and unforeseen circumstances, I will continue to update it until the end, which is not far off. I hope that those of you who are reading will continue to enjoy it. Thank you for sticking with this story.

An anonymous person commented that "psycho boy" Cloud should be allowed to feel something before he starts chopping things up. Very astute observation, Anonymous. Bravo or brava.

This section is really gross. Sorry about that.


"Take a little walk to the edge of town, go across the tracks

Where the viaduct looms like a bird of doom

As it shifts and cracks

Where secrets lie in the border fires, in the humming wires

Hey man, you know you're never coming back

Past the square, past the bridge, past the mills, past the stacks

On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man

In a dusty black coat with a red right hand"

"Red Right Hand" - Nick Cave


ShinRa

"Esuna," Scarlet said, as she hit her captive with another blast of it. "I can't keep doing this, damn you."

Fletcher slumped against the wall and his hands stopped twitching. She had tied his hands at first so that he couldn't fight her, but she now kept them tied because he wouldn't stop trying to rip his face off. The lacerations were, in Scarlet's estimation, pretty frigging gruesome. He'd been going at his skin for hours, it seemed, and his fingertips were covered in blood. The wounds on his face were worse than the one on his thigh. As it turned out, her bullet had only grazed his leg. It had already stopped bleeding, and she hadn't had to tie a tourniquet as she'd originally thought she would. For once, she was thankful that she was such a bad shot.

Scarlet had briefly left him here in the storage basement of Reeve's arcade while she went out scavenging for medical supplies, because she couldn't continue to watch him do that to himself. She could stand a lot of things, but the sight (and sound) of a man ripping his skin off was not one of them.

He seemed to be unconscious, so she doused the gauze that she had nicked into the antiseptic that she had nicked (the owner of the pharmacy was either dead or evacuated, and Scarlet had no problems with stealing to begin with,) and then pressed the gauze to Fletcher's cheek.

That woke him up right quick. He tried to scream through his gag.

"Shh," she said. "I know it stings, but trust me, it's better than letting it get infected." Scarlet didn't like to think she would be with him long enough for that to happen, but one never knew. Tears leaked from his frantic eyes, and Scarlet wiped them away. "Don't need any salt in there, do we?" she said.

It was kind of pathetic, the way he kept trying to sob through the gag. It made her uncomfortable, but she knew she wasn't responsible for this. On the contrary, she had probably saved his life, though she doubted that Reeve would see it that way. Fletcher couldn't seem to figure out what she was doing. She wondered if he even remembered who she was.

"You've been hit with status materia," she said. "And it's not wearing off. That's part of why I've got your hands tied. Okay?"

He nodded, holding eye contact with her as if he were desperate for it. She suspected he was. He was definitely in shock.

"So, uhh, you're going to be all right if you just let me take care of this. You see?"

Slowly, he nodded once more.

"I'm going to take the gag off so I can clean your face, but you have to promise to be quiet. I can't do it with you screaming and making a scene."

He nodded again. She removed the gag.

"Scarlet?" he rasped.

"Yes. Now hold still."

Fletcher tried very hard to hold still as she pressed the gauze to the lacerations on his jaw, but it was clearly a struggle.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Sorry? You shot me, you bitch."

"Only a little."

He was quiet for a moment, like a resentful child, as he submitted to her ministrations.

"Scarlet?"

"What?"

"Why did you take me here?"

She paused for a moment to weigh her options as she once more doused the gauze. "You're a political prisoner," she said. "Your ransom is made up of conditions for Reeve."

He winced as she pressed the gauze to his face again, but he didn't cry out. "What conditions?"

She glanced at his eyes and toyed with the idea of telling him the truth. She had to name her terms to Reeve at some point anyway, so she decided there was no reason not to tell him.

"The Turks," she said. "He needs to hand them over to me, so there's that, for starters. But the major things are immunity and his resignation."

Fletcher jerked his head around to look at her. He was stunned. "I don't think he can even grant you immunity, Scarlet. Or at least, no more than you've already granted yourself. You have a lot of clout."

"Not as much as you'd think," she said. "Reeve Skye has all of Midgar."

"Yeah, and there's nothing left of that, is there?"

He did have a point. Scarlet was slightly taken aback by the change in him. He had gone from raving lunatic to astute businessman in a few minutes.

She shrugged. "He'll rebuild. He'll get gil from Junon, and ports as far as Costa Del Sol will probably rush to his aid. You can't deny that he's popular."

"And what is calling for his resignation going to accomplish? You know he'll only come back stronger years later, and if you release me, you'll have nothing more to bargain with."

She sat back on her heels. "Fletcher, try to understand me. Okay, first of all, Reeve might not even live through this. Something huge is going on and he's involved. But let's say he does, and as usual, he comes out on top. People will love him for it, because even I have to admit that I think he'll shine through this thing. If he resigns during the crisis, his public will never forgive him."

"He could expose you."

"You're saying I should just kill him myself?" She smiled slyly.

He didn't flinch, but looked her in the eye. "Why haven't you?"

"Because I know Reeve, and I know he's got informants everywhere. If I kill him, it will get out. It's almost better for me if he lives."

"So you're going to hold me here until he publicly resigns in the middle of this crisis?"

"If need be."

"What if he exposes you before you even negotiate?"

"Reeve knows I have you, but he doesn't know that I'm alone with you. As far as he knows, I've got people guarding you, ready to cut your throat. You know that he won't risk an innocent life for his personal gain."

"What about his informants?"

"That's why I want immunity."

Fletcher finally looked away. He was indignant and self-righteous, but at least he was sane and not gouging his cheeks anymore. Scarlet decided she liked the Reeve's-puppy version of this man worlds better than the raving lunatic.

As she gently wiped more blood from his face, Scarlet became aware of noise from the door.

"Quiet," she hissed, as she drew her gun.

Fletcher didn't make a sound. Scarlet tensed, at attention, ready to fire at the intruder, to hide the gun if it was someone harmless or if by some chance it was more press, or to put the gun to Fletcher's head if it was Reeve or one of his people.

"...because of all the people you murdered..." came the voice from the stairs above.

The word "murder" wasn't good in this context, she decided. And the voice had a strange quality to it, an edge that she couldn't place but didn't like. She now heard footsteps on the stairs, followed by a sliding thud each time.

"...children...some of them were children."

Sudden silence. Even the footsteps had stopped. She heard the voice whisper, "Wait here and don't move."

Scarlet waited for the footsteps to continue down the stairs, but they didn't. All was silent. She felt her palms becoming slick against the gun, and against the wall as she braced herself on it. Crouching here felt safe, but she knew it would be better to stand up; she would have more control over herself and the gun if she was on her feet. Slowly, she stood up.

As the silence drew out, she discovered that she was terrified. She should have heard more movement by now. She knew that this person was creeping down the stairs, and she had no idea how close he was. She wanted to dive behind the boxes to hide, but it was too late for that now, because she would make too much noise. As slowly as she could, she stepped sideways, closer to one of the boxes. She knew he was approaching, but he was so quiet that she had no way of knowing when he'd show himself. She fought the urge to run.

A quick glance at Fletcher told her that he was feeling the same apprehension. She prayed that he would be quiet, or that if he couldn't, he would draw the killer's attention to himself and...

Killer? she thought frantically. What the hell made me think that?

She took another sideways step towards the boxes, and then let out a small shriek when he entered the room. She tried to fire the gun, but couldn't, because she was frozen to the spot, trying to scream at his appalling speed, and his eyes.

Killer, killer, I was right, he is a killer...

"Fucking ShinRa!"

She could have sworn that he was gliding into the room, and god help her, it was Cloud Strife, except that he didn't look anything like she remembered. His eyes burned with hatred and insanity, and through the gold pyramid of light he had stunned her with (Oh Christ, god, he's got Reno's weapon, how did he ever...) she could see his catlike pupils, black as death in his glowing irises.

"Fucking ShinRa," he repeated, pointing the EMr in her direction. "Wait there and don't move. It's time for a...time for a..." He seemed to be stuck on the word, and he startled her by squeezing his eyes shut and flinching back so hard he almost stumbled into the wall. Then he opened his eyes slowly and smiled. He giggled, and it was an eerie sound devoid of any humor or life. "It's a reunion," he said. Then he disappeared around the corner again.

Scarlet thought frantically about shooting the wall of energy he had put around her with Reno's weapon, but an old memory of Reno explaining the EMr to her stopped her. She knew the bullet would ricochet and that the wall could only either wear off or be broken from the outside. But she held on to the gun. Strife hadn't seemed to notice it.

She even held her grip on it when Strife came back in, dragging the corpse of the Hojo clone she had killed behind him.

Fletcher choked on a gasp. Strife ignored him.

"Sweet Planet," Scarlet said. She was close to crying. Strife was the most powerful person she knew of - at least physically he was - and he was out of his mind. She watched in awe as he pulled the clone's body up by the arm and flung it against the wall as if it were a piece of plastic.

"Don't move," he told it.

In spite of her terror, or maybe because of it, Scarlet fleetingly wondered if he was kidding or not. When he turned to her, she was assured that he wasn't. In his confusion, he had convinced himself that the body of the clone was alive.

In his confusion. Confusion! Of course!

Relief made her knees feel weak. When the wall around her wore down, she would hit him with Esuna. Cloud Strife may have hated her, but she also knew that he wouldn't hurt her if she did what he wanted, once he was himself again. She trusted his mercy. Strife would be willing to negotiate.

"Cloud..." she began.

"Shut up!" he barked, and he hit the wall around her with the EMr. It shattered, and Scarlet took the opportunity. She hit him with Esuna.

He was now face to face with her, with no barrier between them, and he looked stunned and perplexed.

"Esuna?" he asked. Then he smiled, and she saw that her idea hadn't worked. "Scarlet, there isn't a single status effect on me." With the same sickening speed she had seen before, he knocked the gun out of her hand, hitting her wrist so hard that she felt her fingers tingle.

She took a few frantic steps backward as he advanced on her, until she felt her back hit the wall. His eyes were terrible and bright. His lips were red and his cheeks were flushed, and she could feel sick heat coming off of him in waves. She closed her eyes, because looking at him was like looking at everything that had ever gone wrong on the Planet.

He was close to her, and suddenly quiet. She realized that he was lifting his hand to touch her. Gods, what did he want? She could feel the heat from his palm as it skimmed past her neck intimately, as if he were sensing her...

She finally had to open her eyes to see what he was planning, because by the Planet, if Cloud Strife had gone mad and was going to rape her, she would fight him until they were both dead and she wanted him to know that. She glared at him defiantly, knowing it was a look that any man might recognize.

His expression, which had been dazed, changed to revelation. He took a step back.

"Scarlet, really," he said. "Just because I'm starving doesn't mean I'm going to eat dirt."

She had slapped him before she even realized she was doing it. God damn him, that even at the end of his sanity he had the presence of mind to hurt her without even touching her. It was this sanctimonious primness in him that she had hated since she'd first laid eyes on him, which said that no matter how humbly he presented himself, he still thought himself too pure for her.

He turned back to her slowly, and there was a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. He rolled his glowing eyes in arrogant annoyance, took her by the shoulder, and pushed her to the floor.

"Don't move," he said, and he took the gun and put it in the waistband of his pants. "In fact, Stop." He turned and cast status materia of his own, and Scarlet was frozen in place.

Then he turned his attention back to the dead clone.

"I don't know what I did to make Fortune so happy with me," he said to the body. "She's been fucking me for years, so maybe she finally got off. Thank the Planet and I'm just sorry it didn't happen sooner! You're here with me, it's all good, Hojo, because I can...I can feel things again, you know?" He kneeled beside the corpse and grabbed it by its blood-caked hair. "So I want to feel you die. I didn't get to the last time I..."

Scarlet saw his mouth go slack and his eyes go wide. She knew he must have realized he'd already killed Hojo. He blinked, flinched, and then the predatory look returned again.

"We have some time before she gets here, so we can, you know, catch up."

Scarlet had no idea who "she" was, but she suspected he might have meant Jenova. In the meantime, he seemed to have forgotten all about her and Fletcher. Scarlet hoped against all hope that he would continue to forget until the status he had cast on her wore off, which it was just about to do. But the evil luck that had plagued her these last few days was consistent: Strife turned back to her.

"Stop," he said again, and again Scarlet was locked in place. "I'll deal with you later, ShinRa." He glanced over at Fletcher. "You, too," he added. "Whoever the hell you are." Then he turned back to the corpse.

Scarlet's stomach was in a knot as she watched him pull the clone's arms out to its sides and straighten its legs. She wanted to look away as he buckled imaginary straps over its wrists, but she found that she couldn't. The pantomime was perfect; she didn't have to guess what he was doing.

Strife was likely planning on killing her next, and probably with just as much detail. He blurred in her vision as tears filled her eyes. She had startled and sickened herself by admitting that she might die tonight. ShinRa would never be reborn. She would die tonight, and Strife would make her suffer.

Strife filled an imaginary needle and mimed plunging it into the dead clone's arm. He slapped the corpse's face suddenly, and hard. "Stop screaming!" he yelled gleefully. "It distracts me!"

The Hojo clone's head stayed turned towards Scarlet, the bullet hole like a third eye in its forehead. Its mouth was gaping and the skin was discolored where Strife had struck it.

"Let's see, typical day in Hojo's lab..." Strife stood up and scanned the room, ignoring Scarlet and Fletcher once more. Scarlet knew he'd found something that interested him when his vertical pupils dilated with unnatural speed. She'd never seen anything so sinister, and she blocked out the thought that he might be the last thing she saw on this Planet.

Strife darted over to where a box cutter lay on a shelf, and grabbed it. Fletcher gasped, and Scarlet silently prayed that he could keep quiet. The status Strife had cast on her was about to wear off, but he turned and negligently cast it on her again. He was so skilled with materia that timing it was second nature to him, and Scarlet gave up hope of his forgetting to recast it.

He went back to kneeling beside the corpse, but now he was on the other side of it, so that he wasn't blocking any part of it from her or Fletcher. She doubted he'd done it on purpose, because he was back in his own world again.

"What's that?" he asked, as he leaned closer to the body. "Difficult to speak with a gag over your tongue, isn't it? Oh, now, what was that? Anesthesia? Hojo, really. What did you always tell me? 'Pain that doesn't kill you will make you stronger.' Hojo, thank you for making me the strongest person on the Planet." He turned the corpse's face back towards him and shook the box cutter at it. "I just thanked you, Hojo. You should savor that because, you know...you know, it's not going to happen again."

Scarlet barely saw him move as he cut down the front of the body, but suddenly it seemed as if Hojo's skin had leapt away to either side of him, and a day's worth of bloat and Mako spewed out of him.

Fletcher turned his head away and vomited the bit of water she had given him. He kept heaving, but there was nothing left to come out. Scarlet herself felt her stomach rise up in protest at the stench, but there was nothing in her system to throw up.

"I went a little too deep," Strife said conversationally. "But then, I'm not the doctor, so you can't expect me to do everything with precision." He stood up and looked back to Scarlet, ready to cast stop on her again, but when he saw the two of them, he faltered.

"Don't," he said.

Scarlet screwed up her courage and spoke to this monster. "Don't what?"

"Don't look at me like that!" he shouted. He raised a shaking hand to his head and pressed his fingertips against his forehead. "This is nothing," he muttered. "This is like five minutes worth of quality time with Hojo." He took a step forward, as if to catch his balance. "This is nothing."

He took another step and then sank to his knees, dropping the box cutter next to him. He raised his eyes towards the ceiling as if he were looking through it to the sky, and Scarlet saw that he was crying. She'd never seen it before, but there were a thousand days of this in his eyes. She felt something close to pity for this inhuman thing. She'd needed him dead for a long time, but she'd suddenly realized that death might be better for him, as well. The revelation surprised her.

"Mr. Strife?" Fletcher said raggedly.

Oh, you stupid ass! Scarlet mentally cursed him. Strife had been distracted and she could have used it against him.

Strife looked at Fletcher, steeling himself visibly for anything. "What?"

"I, uhh...I know it doesn't mean anything, but uhh, I'm sorry you had to live that way."

Scarlet looked at Fletcher to see if this was some sort of ploy. She was shocked to see that Fletcher was also crying, and it didn't seem to be for his own predicament.

Strife bowed his head and wept quietly into his hands. Scarlet saw her chance. The status had worn off, and the box cutter was by his side. With a motion to Fletcher that told him to stay where he was and keep quiet, she crawled slowly, on hands and knees, closer to Strife.

She had nearly closed in on him when he looked up. Scarlet froze where she was, thought quickly, and changed her ploy. She had always been good at crying when it suited her, and certainly now it was no challenge, with the stench of Mako and rot in the air, and the thought of dying at his hands.

"I'm so sorry, Cloud."

He frowned warily as Scarlet continued to approach him. "What do you want?"

"To help... I'm worried about you."

He blinked when she said that, and slumped forward. Scarlet caught him without thinking about it.

"Mom," he said into her shoulder. His hand came up and touched her hair. His mother must have been blond, too.

She had never been held for comfort before, and it gave her a strange feeling, entirely alien to her and somewhat uncomfortable. He was a diseased, insane wreck, who, in her opinion, should have died long ago; but she found herself stroking his back as if it were an instinct, even as she reached for the box cutter.

She could hear and feel his heart beating so hard that it shook him. His hands clutched her back and her hair as she took hold of the blade and brought it to his front. She would have to find a way of slipping it against his throat without raising his suspicions, and that might be difficult, but perhaps not. If he had convinced himself she was his mother, it would be the furthest thing from his mind.

His hand left her hair and grabbed her wrist too quickly for her to react. His grip was insanely strong and she heard the blade drop to the floor - she didn't feel it leave her fingers, because they were already numb.

This is it, she thought. She had missed her only chance, and he was going to kill her.

He pulled away from her and turned his head slowly to look at her. Scarlet let out a sob of dismay and terror.

Strife's eyes were rimmed in red - far too red to be discoloration from exhaustion.

Christ, oh, Planet help us, she thought. She had seen many frightening things, but she had never before seen anyone cry tears tinged with blood. She was sure that was what she was seeing. His lips were perfectly red, too, and dry. She thought his blood pressure must be soaring. She wondered if it would kill him before he killed her.

He stood up quickly, dragging her with him. Scarlet shrieked in a small, helpless voice. She was out of pride; she would beg if she had to, and she was just about to, when Cloud pushed her away. She landed on the floor a few feet from him, trembling but still glad to be away from him.

"Fucking ShinRa," he hissed. He glared at her with bloodshot eyes as he paced. "Just like you to try something like that, sneaky ShinRa, can't do anything fairly." He stopped and cocked his head to the side. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Without turning around, he said, "ShinRa, Fortune really does like me today. We have company."

Scarlet suspected that the only person in the room more startled than she was just then was Elena. Cloud had reached behind him and seemingly snatched the Turk out of thin air, though Scarlet had to imagine that she'd been waiting behind the wall next to the doorway. Cloud had simply moved too quickly for her to see them.

Elena gasped when Strife brought her around to his front and she got a good look at him. She immediately choked back the gasp when the smell in the room hit her.

"Thank you for coming by," he said to Elena. "Take a seat by your colleagues." With that, he threw her to the ground next to Scarlet.

"I'm not her..." Elena began.

"STOP!" Strife yelled, and cast the materia on both women. "Fucking SHINRA! Come on out, Tifa. I've got them all lined up for you."

Scarlet had never in her life thought she would be happy to see Tifa Lockheart. Lockheart stepped into the basement, looking oddly peaceful - though she was clearly breathing shallowly to avoid inhaling the awful Mako and rot - and stood beside Strife for a moment, looking his captives over. Then she turned to Strife, and her confidence was clearly shaken.

"Cloud," she said in a timorous voice.

Cloud grinned at her. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "It's a gift for you, Teef," he said. "To celebrate...us. To celebrate us, me and you and our children."

Lockheart shook her head, took a step back as if for balance. "Cloud, we don't..."

"Not yet, Tifa, but it's time. Don't you think it's time? Now that I'm myself again?"

Lockheart stared at him for a moment, and finally let out the sob she'd been holding in. She put her hand to his face and brushed some of the blood away. "Cloud," she said, "we have to let these people go."

"Let them go! Teef, it's ShinRa!"

"No they're not, not anymore. You were just telling me that. Look." She turned his face towards the three people against the wall, who were watching, aghast. Then she addressed Fletcher. "Are you Reeve's secretary?" she asked.

Fletcher nodded.

"Cloud, that's Fletcher, the man Reeve has been looking for. He's a friend. He's not ShinRa and never has been. He has nothing to do with this." She turned his face back to her. "He's innocent. You have to let him go."

Cloud shrugged, then smiled. "Okay, he can go."

Tifa turned to face Fletcher and gave him a long, piercing look. "Fletcher, you're free to go. Reeve is looking for you in Sector Seven."

Scarlet wasn't entirely certain, but it seemed that Tifa was sending for help. Fletcher was too afraid to move, and his hands were still tied. Those were easily taken care of, as Tifa moved to untie him, but there was also the matter of Fletcher's actually getting to Reeve in his condition. As Tifa knelt down to untie Fletcher and help him to his feet, Scarlet surreptitiously removed the anti-status ribbon from under her dress.

"Whatever you're reaching for," Strife said, making Scarlet's skin tense with sudden fear, "I'm going to wrap it around your neck three times if you try to use it."

Lockheart looked at Scarlet with a kind of stern understanding. She took the ribbon from her and nodded in accord. "It's just a ribbon," Tifa said. "Scarlet would like Fletcher to take it so he can get back safely."

She saw Strife's eyes narrow. "Why the hell does she care if he gets back safely?"

"Because Fletcher's no good to me dead," Scarlet said. Sometimes the truth served better than any lie. "I took him for ransom. He's got influence that I could use."

"ShinRa to the last," Strife said. "If you start hurting yourself, I'm just going to watch for a while."

Scarlet held her breath, waiting for Strife to ask her what good Fletcher was to her if he was free, but he didn't. Later she would reflect that this was where he had made his fatal mistake.

"She won't," Lockheart said in a quiet, flat voice. "Not unless she's been living here, like I guess Fletcher has." When Fletcher seemed disinclined to move, she pulled him to his feet. "Go," she ordered.

Fletcher took his time as he edged up to Cloud, then ran like hell past him and up the stairs. Scarlet felt a rush of hope and triumph. She decided that, later on, she might not even be ashamed that Reeve had come to save her. Just then, she would have hugged the stupid bastard if he'd been there.

Strife was chewing thoughtfully on his bottom lip, and didn't seem to realize that he had made himself bleed even more. He looked like a vampire in the dim light, right to his gleaming, hate-filled eyes.

"The last two are ShinRa," he said. "Who's going to do the honors, Teef, me or you? Or both of us?"

Tifa turned to face him. She looked composed, even though tears were streaming down her face. "We can't kill them, Cloud. They're not ShinRa."

He took a step towards her. "They have you fooled, too. ShinRa has finally fooled Tifa Lockheart? The world must be about to end."

Tifa didn't stand down. "And even if they were, we couldn't kill them."

"Sure we can. Over the years, we killed countless Soldiers and ShinRa employees along the way."

"They were fighting back!" she said, and now she sounded shrill, as if she had finally realized how serious he was.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "The ones in those Mako reactors weren't."

Tifa opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again.

Say it, you stuck up little snot, Scarlet thought. I want to hear it before I die.

"They were working for ShinRa," Cloud said. "Sucking the life from the Planet, and we killed them, and it was fine back then, wasn't it? What's the difference now?"

"It wasn't fine, Cloud. It was wrong." She took a deep breath. "The Mako reactors had to go, and ShinRa had to go, but we went about it the wrong way. We killed people who were, if not innocent, then no more guilty than I was, or Barret, or Cid and Reeve, who worked for ShinRa, or you." She took both of Strife's hands in hers. Tears continued to make tracks down the dust on her face. "I had no business making you do that, Cloud. I wanted you to stay with me; I wanted to bring down ShinRa. I was selfish, but I didn't realize how much it would hurt you."

"Hurt me? Tifa, I was a mercenary. And before that, I saw all kinds of shit..."

"It hurt you, Cloud, setting those bombs and killing those people, bringing you back to those reactors. And I'm so sorry."

"I'm the one who joined ShinRa in the first place."

"And then you left. And so did they." Tifa pointed towards Scarlet and Elena.

Strife looked at them at first with confusion, then with sudden clarity. Scarlet could very nearly see the past clearing away from him, so that he could see the present. He looked stunned. Scarlet felt relief so strong it almost made her dizzy. Cloud Strife, not in his right mind and ready to kill without thought, was a dangerous animal. Cloud Strife, righteously angry and hopped up on Mako - but in control of himself - that she could deal with. She could reason with.

"Let them go, Cloud," Tifa said.

And then you'll probably bleed out and die, Scarlet added mentally. It couldn't have been easy for Lockheart, who was at least Strife's good friend, to see him like this. But then, it hadn't been easy for Scarlet to blow a hole in Rufus ShinRa's head, either, but one did what one had to do. She was out of whatever pity she might have been able to scrape up. And if she hadn't been, then Lockheart's admission that she had, in essence, sent Strife off to blow up Mako reactors with her because she wanted him around would have cleared up any stray goodwill she might have had. Lockheart and the others had one hell of a nerve calling ShinRa sick, when...

But now was not the time for her to dwell on vendettas. Now she had been given a chance to escape with her life.

"Right," Strife said softly. "Because Elena came to help." He blinked slowly and looked back down at Lockheart, who was still holding his hands. "Elena is here to help. She came to help. We have to let go of the past."

Lockheart nodded. "Yes. You tried to tell me that, but I refused to listen. I was stubborn." Delicately, she wiped the moisture - tears or sweat or blood or whatever the hell it was - from his face. "You were r - "

"Tifa," he said. He blinked his eyes hard, opened them again, and looked frantically at Lockheart. "Tifa!"

"Cloud? Are you...?"

"Tifa, I saw something." He ground his teeth together hard, balled his hands into fists and struck himself on the head. "No, damn you, let me talk!"

Startled, Scarlet realized that she was watching a struggle, of which she could only see one side.

"Cloud," Lockheart said, "is she...?"

"I saw something," he managed through gritted teeth. "I saw her...her..." His voice grew faint, and he stumbled, tripping over his feet. Lockheart went to grab him and steady him, but he caught his balance with his hand on the wall behind him. "Her heart," he said in the faintest of whispers.

Lockheart was at a loss. "Her...heart? Whose, Cloud?"

She reached for him, but Strife had jerked back from her. It was so sudden that Scarlet barely saw it happen. His hands went to his head again.

"Cloud, no," Lockheart said. She tried to sound stern, but only sounded afraid.

He turned away, mumbled something Scarlet couldn't understand. When he turned to face them again, pulled his hands away from his face and looked up, his eyes were glowing more fiercely than they had before.

"Fucking ShinRa!" he snarled.

Scarlet's heart sank.